Although the 45th Session of the UN Commission on Population and Development just ended, it is already time to raise our voices in preparation for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development that will convene in Brazil in June.

It is critical that the barriers facing women in relation to accessing supportive peri-natal services are fully understood and addressed including structural drivers such as poverty, gender-based violence from partners, in-laws and neighbours, and property and inheritance rights loss. If we do not address these issues, we can not “save the babies.”